Completed 2023

Project description

My PhD project focused on understanding the expression of conflict management behaviours in the cooperatively breeding fish, the daffodil cichlid, Neolamprologus pulcher. Forming a social group provides substantial advantages over solitary living, but it also entails an increase in the competition for resources, resulting in intragroup conflict. Individuals must cope with these dynamics to establish stable social groups. Conflict management involves a complex interplay between dominance , kinship, affiliation, and agonism. To fully understand the mechanisms of conflict management, we must consider both the functional significance of these behaviours and the mechanistic substrates that underpin them. Using an integrative approach, I focused on the phenotypic expression of helping and submissive behaviours, and the role of vasotocin, in the regulation of these social interactions.

Contact

Email: truberto7@gmail.com 

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